ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 71 



CHAPTER VI. 



ANT ARCHITECTURE. 



BUT to return to our subject and our busy worker-ants, 

 whose tireless and well-directed industry is not confined 

 to the high task of training their successors, but extends over 

 -a whole circle of other scarcely less important duties. 



Before all, there is the very complicated dwelling, which 

 is not seldom built, partly in, partly above the ground, of 

 from twenty to forty and more stories one over the other, 

 thus leaving far behind it the highest building of man. 

 This so-called ant-heap the outer appeai-ance of which does 

 not in the least betray the wonderful complexity and appro- 

 priateness of its inner arrangement often rises over a metre 

 in height above the ground, while it also stretches as far 

 below the surface, making altogether a height of between 

 two and three metres. It is built in most artistic 

 fashion out of all attainable materials, such as wood, earth, 

 stones, leaves, stalks, twigs, etc., anything that will serve 

 the ants' purpose. On commencing the building, the earth is 

 first hollowed out in a given circle ; then the building itself 

 is made by help of the thrown-up earth and the other 

 materials brought there, and is widened and enlarged later 

 according to necessity and the condition of affairs. Each 

 story is supported by shafts, or pillars, or beams of wood or 

 clay, the steadiness of which is subjected in each case to 

 careful testing. These beams are often of remarkable 

 length and strength. Forel found some which were thirteen 

 centimetres long by one and a half millimetres in diameter, 

 and others of five centimetres long by three and a half 

 millimetres deep. There are some even larger, and a single 

 ant is able to drag them. Their great length allows the 

 ants to make large, rooms or halls within the dwelling. This 

 is specially wanted for the middle of the so-called labyrinth, 

 which consists of a large chamber, the roof of which is held up 



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